What is the Intellectual Property Status of a Course based on a Text Book?

Question

When creating a course, even if you do not use figures or material from the book, might follow the flow or structure of the book to a certain extent.

I guess you might also be able to use some material under fair use too.

But my main concern is the structure and flow, i.e., the sequence of topics.

Also is a certain topic needs to be covered before another topic that builds on that or has the previous topic as prerequisite might make it difficult to change the structure from the text book.

In such cases, does the course violate any IP law. Is this a derived work of the original book?

Answer 1

Ideas and the logic structure of a presentation (including premises in the form of prerequisites) are not protected by copyright law. Copyright law only protects the concrete expression of those ideas. Therefore if you devise a course that reinterprets / restates those ideas which (naturally) replicates the original ideas, you will not have infringed copyright. Infringement would only come from copying the actual expression that constitutes the original work.